Season 6 episode 12 of tng "Ship in a Bottle" at the end Patrick Stewart says, "who knows, maybe our reality is just an elaborate simulation..." That shit was from like 1993

  • Leon_Grotsky [comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    This is actually a surprisingly old concept, with various flavors throughout history.

    The Butterfly Dream is somewhat popular today

    https://www.philosophy-foundation.org/enquiries/view/the-butterfly-dream

    spoiler

    Chuang Tzu was a philosopher in ancient China, who, one night went to sleep and dreamed that he was a butterfly. He dreamt that he was flying around from flower to flower and while he was dreaming he felt free, blown about by the breeze hither and thither. He was quite sure that he was a butterfly. But when he awoke he realised that he had just been dreaming, and that he was really Chuang Tzu dreaming he was a butterfly. But then Chuang Tzu asked himself the following question: "was I Chuang Tzu dreaming I was a butterfly or am I now really a butterfly dreaming that I am Chuang Tzu?"

    Also there are writings from Greek, Indian, and Aztec Philosophers that had different ideas about reality being a painting/book/dream of the gods which is not that far off from Simulation Hypothesis all things considered.

      • Leon_Grotsky [comrade/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        I came across this idea here which is referring to different (established) understandings of Aztec Metaphysics

        The Nahuas characterize the ever-changing aspect of teotl in two seemingly deceptive ways that raise important issues pertaining to the possibility of knowing reality. One of these ways is through the creative, aesthetic concept of in xochitl in cuicatl or “flower and song.” The Nahuas thus conceive the generating and regenerating activity of teotl as an artistic creation. Accordingly, the world and entities within it are the artistic creation and recreation of teotl. Nezahualcoyotl expresses this view through the metaphor of a “book of paintings” that is the world in which we live (ibid.). Entities in the world, including human beings, are thus paintings in the book of teotl. The second seemingly deceptive way in which the Nahuas conceive the generating and regenerating aspect of teotl is through the concept of nahual, which is a shamanic form-changing transformation. Maffie explains that, “the word nahual derives from nahualli meaning both form-changing and the being into which a shaman transforms” (Maffie 2014, p. 39). Teotl thus transforms and re-transforms itself into different guises such as animals, human beings and other entities in the world. This seemingly deceptive artistic and shamanic conceptions of teotl raise questions regarding one’s epistemic access to reality. That is because teotl not only appears as illusory, as in the case of paintings, it also appears as disguising, as in the case of its shamanic transformations. In both cases, reality thus appears as other than itself—therefore the disguising characterization of teotl.

        And to describe it as "life is just something the gods wrote ina book" was a reductive way to put it but here we are

        • IceWallowCum [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Thanks a lot for showing me this! I love reading (and getting sad) about pre-colombian civilizations

    • Tofu_Lewis [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I have definitely had those types of dreams before - you wake up from a life that you feel was true and real.

      • Redbolshevik2 [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        To bring it back to Star Trek, I think Inner Light captures that to some extent.